Worlds first live 2.5G concert with ROK
UK-based Mobile TV gurus ROK notched up another first over the weekend - this time for streaming the world’s first live music concert over mass-market 2.5G via GPRS to mobile phones.
The ‘Be My Guest‘ concert was staged on Saturday 14th July at the Bangkok Hall in Thailand and was streamed across a 4 hour period, live and exclusive, to mobile operator AIS’s ROK TV service.
Commenting on the breakthrough, Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman of ROK said “Live events have been streamed over 3G networks before but never over 2.5G via GPRS so we are delighted to have successfully set the tone - and the model - for this brand new mass-market mobile entertainment service, going forward”.
AIS reported a total of more than 15,000 people watched ROK TV on their mobiles on the day of the concert. Interestingly, according to ROK, the concert was staged during a torrential rainstorm in Bangkok which disabled satellite TV for many people, yet their GPRS stream carried on working.
4 hours on your mobile to see a concert.. I wonder what the local cost was to see that….? (I expect not many people were actually on for the whole 4 hours)
I’d love to know what it would cost to see a 4 hour concert over here…
Posted by Mark on July 17th, 2007 at 1:57 pm.Thailand’s AIS has GPRS packages which are time based. A 5hrs package only costs 50bahts, which is about USD1.00+?
Posted by Daniel See on July 17th, 2007 at 3:16 pm.Hi Mark,
This is Bruce from ROK.
In Thailand (as elsewhere), our partner telcos include GPRS data in the subscription cost of ROK TV.
Over here in the UK, if you’re on a post-pay tariff with GPRS included - watching ROK TV over GPRS should be free. Of course, if you don’t have GPRS data in your tariff or a flat-rate data plan, your carrier will charge you whatever they think, er, appropriate……
Posted by Bruce on July 17th, 2007 at 5:47 pm.